With August as women in translation month (and since I am a female translator myself), I thought I’d have a rummage on my shelves and see what I’ve got hiding away! Interestingly, it appeared that if the book was originally written by a man, it was more likely that it would be translated into English…

A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman, translated by Henning Koch “Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots – joggers, neighbours who can’t reverse a trailer properly and shop assistants who talk in code. But isn’t it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity…

I tend to find that the summer and autumn a very birthday-heavy seasons and I love taking the opportunity to give my friends not only something that I love, but also something that I think they’ll love. With that in mind, I’ve made a list of 10 books that I would give, have given or…